Forum / Music that inspires you

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    Kevin Myrick
    Jan 31, 04:07pm

    Good Monday morning all! (Or for those of us who don't live in the US, I guess we could call this afternoon, evening or night.)

    Anyways, I've seemed to have literally listened to every bit of music I have at least thirty times, and need something new to inspire me.

    So I want to know, if you don't mind telling me, what music has inspired you?

    -Kev

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    Gloria Mindock
    Jan 31, 04:35pm

    The Beatles are always my inspiration.
    Others:
    Joni Mitchell
    Neil Young
    Depeche Mode
    Pierre Ubu
    The Cure (love them)
    Tori Amos

    Experimental music
    Music from different countries

    Really everything except I don't like country western

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    Kevin Myrick
    Jan 31, 04:47pm

    Who is Pierre Ubu?

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    Gloria Mindock
    Jan 31, 05:34pm

    Oh Kevin, you must hear them. I will search for the better CD and tell you about them. Experimental and weird but oh, I just love them. They have been around a long time. I don't even know if they are still together. This name was also the name of a strange play that I love.
    I'm at work now so I can't get you the info yet but definitely will.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Jan 31, 05:41pm

    Music does inspire.

    I love all kinds of music, but one CD I own, Tish Hinojosa's "Dreaming From The Labyrinth/Soñar Del Laberinto" inspired two short stories and a lot of poems.

    Never really a great fan of country music until I lived in Texas and could not get away from it, I've written two short stories that revolve around country/western music. One features Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and the other was inspired by "Pancho and Lefty" written by Townes Van Zandt, which I can often hear sung by Willie Nelson on the radio when I am driving down in the Southwest.

    Also particularly fond of narcocorridos from Mexico. Groups like Los Canelos De Durango or Los Tucanes de Tijuana. If you can glean understanding of the lyrics from the Spanish and the curious Mexican idioms, their stories are fascinating. I'm mapping out a novel about an American and a German, business partners who run afoul of a Mexican gang in Monterrey, so it started out as research, but I became fond of the stories, the poetry within these narcocorrido songs, if not the music.

    The music, I suppose, is an acquired taste. I've not.

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    Sam Rasnake
    Jan 31, 06:31pm

    Townes Van Zandt
    Pink Floyd
    Robert Johnson
    Chet Baker
    Miles Davis
    Billie Holiday
    Bob Dylan
    Joni Mitchell
    Beethoven
    The Band
    Patti Smith
    Muddy Waters
    Rolling Stones
    Lucinda Williams
    The Beatles
    Wes Montgomery
    Patty Griffin

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    David Ackley
    Jan 31, 07:43pm

    Mal Waldron/Steve Lacey
    Ali Farka Toure'
    ditto on Robert Johnson
    Miles, "In a Silent Way"
    Bach, "Goldberg Variations," Glenn Gould
    Mozart, Violin Concerti
    Tommy Flanagan

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    Roberta
    Jan 31, 08:27pm

    Anything by Bjork or most things by The Handsome Family. Distractingly wonderful lyrics too. Also Bjork singing a couple of E E Cummings sonnets is pretty amazing. Or lots of jazz, or something by "Air" for mellow background stuff whilst you're writing.

    Oh! And Jonsi! And Roma music...

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    stephen hastings-king
    Jan 31, 09:25pm

    nice to see some favorites here already...steve lacy, ali farka touré, miles davis, pere ubu...i could add lots to the list, but i don't write with music on. i've been paying close attention to sound for a long time, so listening is a separate activity.

    i find that sound is more useful for thinking and writing...crazy stuff like the locus sonus soundmap:

    http://locusonus.org/soundmap/024/

    that lets you superimpose live audio streams from all over the place.

    one of my favorites is the audio stream from palaloa (hydrophones under the antarctic ice sheet)

    http://www.awi.de/en/research/research_divisions/climate_science/observational_oceanography/oceans_acoustic_lab/ocean_acoustics/palaoa/palaoa_livestream/

    despite the lady who periodically breaks in to announce how not entertainment what you're hearing is. i like the sense of vastness in this feed.

    also very low frequency radio feeds can be interesting. there's a bunch of them (search for vlf feeds).

    a while ago i taught a class that tried to link writing and sound manipulation, so i spent a lot of time thinking about how to integrate them. i used to have students do a writing exercise that required they go outside, pick a soundmark and describe what they heard without naming the source. something about that infected my brain, i think.

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    Kevin Myrick
    Jan 31, 10:52pm

    Stephen: very interesting writing exercise! I'll have to try that.

    Everyone else: half of everything you've listed I listen to as well...

    James: I've listened to some of the music from south of the border, but not a lot since I don't speak Spanish.

    Thanks so far for the suggestions. Keep them coming!

    -Kev

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    W.F. Lantry
    Jan 31, 11:10pm

    Interesting stuff. I do need something on when writing, but it can't have words, or at least not words I can understand.

    There *is* a birdsong channel: http://www.birdsongradio.com/

    But mostly I just have old music. I've got 44 hours of Dvorak on MP3, which I just run as a loop. Saint-Seans, Fauré, that kind of thing. Debussy sometimes. I can go for days, on shuffle, without any repeats... ;)

    Thanks,

    Bill

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    Judith A. Lawrence
    Feb 01, 02:22am

    Great topic! I've introduced a few friends to "The Blue Nile," a UK band from the eighties. They come out with a new album every 7 or 8 years. My favorite of their albums is "Hats." Never seem to get tired of hearing it.

    Also lately love Eric Clapton's version of "Autumn Leaves." Wish he would do a whole album of that kind of music.

    And then there's Leonard Cohen, the older mellowed Leonard, specifically the 2009 "London" album, (essential Leonard), although the 2010 album, "Songs From the Road" has "Famous Blue Raincoat," and "Suzanne" on it.

    Ok, I'll shut up now!

    Judith

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    Linda Simoni-Wastila
    Feb 01, 02:28am

    Fun thread. I use certain music to get into the heads of my protags (they have favorite music, too). I listened to a lot of Keane and Coldplay (especially their early moody stuff) for one character. Another character gets Dvorak and Elgar, all the string concertoes. Yet another Broadway muscials -- Rent, Pippin, etcetera. I put in my earbuds and walk for a good half-hour, think through the scene, then go back and take notes.

    But I really can't write with music playing. I need silence. Peace....

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    Kevin Myrick
    Feb 01, 03:02am

    Linda - I had one character who was obsessed with blues, but I've not played with characters and music much since.

    And Stephen (and maybe this is just my inability to be able to navigate the site) I couldn't figure out how to get the sound streams to work on the map. I would try to click on something and all it would bring up is Google map info. I'll try playing with it again when I have time later.

    While I'm thinking about it, does anyone have any suggestions for anything from Guatemala? I'm working on something that I think relates to current circumstances in Egypt (government overthrows, etc.) and am thinking of setting it in Latin America (though how I plan to accomplish this well, I have no clue.)

    -Kev

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    Matt Dennison
    Feb 01, 03:05am

    itunes
    radio
    Ambient
    Mission Control from SomaFM

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    Kevin Myrick
    Feb 01, 03:09am

    Matt - Mission Control from SomaFM? Like Houston Mission Control?

    Link me if so.

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    Matt Dennison
    Feb 01, 03:20am

    It's wonderful space-music with radio communications between astronauts and Mission Control interspersed throughout.

    If you have itunes, just follow the steps above.

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    stephen hastings-king
    Feb 01, 03:35am

    kev---follow the mixtable link to the right of the map. sorry about that...forgot.

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    Kevin Myrick
    Feb 01, 03:35am

    Ah now this is something I can definitely appreciate. I am a space nut, after all.

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    Matt Dennison
    Feb 01, 03:50am

    These gals were pretty sharp, too.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN9UT2zF8c8

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